The Lord Of Lightning (Book 3) (8 page)

Bittel was quiet, filled with love and happiness, and oblivious and isolated from the wars that raged throughout Wealdland.

Wynnfrith looked down at Frea. This red haired girl is the same age as I was when I fled Rogar Li, Wynnfrith thought. The sun rose over the Far Grasslands, hot and burning. Wynnfrith took Frea's long dagger and cut the branches of some low-lying scrub to cover them, as they rested for the day.

Frea turned fitfully in her sleep, and she dreamt.

She was older. She was an adult and she was wandering the great granite corridors of Ethgeow, the castle in which she spent her childhood years. But this was not her Ethgeow. This was the New Ethgeow, the rebuilt Ethgeow, grander, more resplendent than any structure ever constructed by any human.

Her grandmother Miri came to her, smiling.

"Miri!" Frea cried. Her grandmother was a strong woman, the mother of her father, Haergill, King of the Northern Kingdom of Man. Miri had short gray curls. She was tall for a woman, wide of shoulder, and not to be trifled with.

Miri spread her arms and took her granddaughter in a warm embrace.

"What do you think of New Ethgeow?" Miri asked.

"New Ethgeow?"

"Did you not think your husband would keep his promise?" Miri smiled, still holding Frea.

"Husband?" Frea asked.

"King Arnwylf the Great," Miri said with a reproving shake of her head.

Frea could only blink in disbelief.

"Let us go see him," Miri said, and led her granddaughter by the hand through the arched stone corridors, out onto a parapet.

New Ethgeow was filled with a crush of humans, happy humans dressed in gay colors, laughing and feasting. They all looked up and cheered to a far balcony.

Frea followed their adoration to see Arnwylf on a far balcony. He was older and regal, and age made him more handsome than ever. He sported a dark blonde beard, and had several more scars upon his face than Frea ever remembered.

Frea turned to ask Miri a question, but her grandmother had disappeared.

"Oh," Frea said aloud. "Of course, she can't be here because my grandmother is dead."

Then Frea was startled by terrible high-pitched screaming. She looked down at the courtyards filled with people, who were shrieking in terror for their lives. They pointed up and Frea turned to look up as well.

High in the sky, something was coming.

It was Deifol Hroth, ringed in blazing fingers of lightning. He held the Sun Sword and the Moon Sword joined together in one hand, and the Lhalii, the elvish crystal, in his other hand. He landed near Arnwylf on the balcony.

Frea tried to scream to warn Arnwylf, but she was in a dream and couldn't open her mouth.

Deifol Hroth put the Lhalii onto the extended hilt of the Sun Sword and a fire began to emanate from the joined devices.

Arnwylf drew a sword and tried to strike Deifol Hroth, but Arnwylf simply burned, horribly burned, until he was nothing but ashes.

Frea closed her eyes in her dream and willed herself away from the scene.

"Only a dream," she repeated to herself.

Frea opened her eyes to find she was standing on an ocean tormented and boiling with awful waves. Frea looked and saw Ronenth in a small sailboat, wrestling with the ropes that controlled his sails. The sky was black and filled with roiling storm clouds.

Vyreeoten exploded from the turbulent foam and crashed down on Ronenth's boat, their disgusting, snake-like bodies smashing the small craft with a white, frothing splash.

Again Frea squeezed her eyes shut and willed herself away from the second dream.

Then she heard a voice in the dark that chilled her to the bone.

Frea opened her eyes to find she was in pitch-blackness. She was floating in an emptiness, a terrible void of lifelessness, there was no sun, no moons, no earth, not even stars. But it was a real place, a vast, infinite, abyss. The darkness was so complete, Frea couldn't even see her own hand in front of her face.

There was only the Other.

"Greetingsss," a voice in the darkness hissed.

"Who- who-" was all Frea could get out.

"You are in a dreeeeam brought on by the Aaaaar," the great black creature softly said in a gentle voice. "Aaand I thought too ssssee who heeeeld my stooone."

The thing was far away, and Frea could just make it out as it swam closer through the empty blackness. As it kept coming, with the only sickly glow of light in all this universe, it kept getting larger. Frea wasn't sure if it was a dragon, or a lizard, but it was definitely nothing of earth.

"Noooo boassstssss?" The black thing said. "Noooo proclaaaamtions of my dessstruction?"

"What are you?" Frea managed to get out.

"I ammm the ennnnd of all thingssss," the creature said as it got closer, growing in size with its proximity.

Frea could see that it was larger than a city, possibly larger than all of Wealdland. How could a creature be that large?

"I ammm the queeen of the vyyyyyreeeoten," the creature softly hissed. "I ammmm veryyyy far awayyy. But myyy lover Deiiiifol Hrrroth will briiing meeee tooo youuuu. Annnnd thennn weee willl desssstroy heavvven." The creature's voice went up in pitch with the last, and it burst into vile, shuddering laughter.

Frea closed her eyes and clenched her fists.

"No, no, no," Frea said.

"NO!" Frea screamed as she sat up, awake, grasping the leather wrapped Ar.

Wynnfrith roused and gently took the Ar from Frea.

"Bad dream?" Wynnfrith sleepily said as she settled down again.

"I saw the thing in the darkness," Frea quietly said.

"I see her all the time," Wynnfrith said with an obvious pain that holding the Ar brought. "She says she will destroy heaven and laughs."

"Yes," Frea said.

"She says that every time," Wynnfrith said as a sweat broke on her brow.

"Is she real?" Wynnfrith said with fear.

"Yes," was all Wynnfrith said, as she tried to drift off to a fitful sleep.

A rustling in the far-reaching grass all about them roused Frea. The unmistakable sounds of feet shuffling through the grass carried on the wind.

"Someone's coming," Frea whispered to Wynnfrith, shaking her.

Wynnfrith carefully got to her knees, and pressed their newfound sword into Frea's hands.

"Garonds?" Wynnfrith asked in a whisper, as she hefted Frea's long dagger.

"Yes," Frea whispered back.

"Can you tell how many?" Wynnfrith asked.

"They're moving differently," Frea said as she tried to scan the horizon without revealing herself.

Wynnfrith felt the Ar increase in vibrations in her hands. She felt the spark of life in all things, and, like a vision of blue shadows, saw the garonds not far away.

Wynnfrith stood up.

"We're over here!" Wynnfrith called in garondish, waving.

"What are you doing?" Frea cried as she pulled Wynnfrith down.

Wynnfrith struggled back to her feet.

"Over here!" Wynnfrith cried again in the garond tongue. "It's Dond!" Wynnfrith said to Frea, pulling her to her feet. The Ar gave Wynnfrith and Frea the ability to speak and understand the garond language.

Four, wild looking garonds loped over to Wynnfrith and Frea.

"Thank the Great Parent, I found you!" Dond exclaimed. Dond and the other garonds were more natural, less martial than the garonds who served the Dark One.

These garonds had long hair, platted with seashells and bones. They bore painted marks of earth ores on their faces and arms, and wore naturally treated leathers and skins. They looked gentle and kind, the way a garond should appear.

"We have been tracking you for days," Dond said. "There are many coming for you. We must take you to a safe place."

"The Far Grasslands are flat," Frea said. "There is nowhere to hide."

Dond looked at his three other companions as if he needed their approval.

"We are taking you to the Cave of Animal Spirits," Dond said to Frea. "You will be safe there."

"We need to get back to Wealdland," Frea protested.

"Frea," Wynnfrith said, "we must go with them. You know it's the right thing to do."

Frea didn't argue. Perhaps it was the closeness to the Ar the past three moonths, but the intuitive world was clearer than ever to both the women.

"The cave is close," Dond said. "I think you have been circling it for many days."

"Maybe the Ar was trying to help us find it," Wynnfrith said.

"You still have the Heart of the Earth," Dond said with sudden brightness.

"Would you hold it for a while?" Wynnfrith wearily asked.

"It is not permitted," Dond said with reverence that Wynnfrith didn't understand.

"Let us go to your cave," Frea interjected. "I don't like being out in the open like this."

Wynnfrith and Frea followed Dond and his three garond friends through the tall grass of the prairie. The garonds stooped low with their animal-like gait. The furs and skins that the unconverted garonds wore made them look more akin to loping animals, than cousins to humanity.

Dond led them to a large, orange and white stone. Two of the garonds heaved at the rock and it slid aside to reveal a hole in the ground. Dond climbed down and before his head disappeared, he motioned for Wynnfrith and Frea to follow.

Wynnfrith eased herself into the hole behind Dond. As Frea put her feet into the hole, the other three garonds began to excitedly jabber to each other.

"What is it?" Frea said with alarm. The three garonds pointed to the nearby rise. A platoon of Deifol Hroth's garonds could be seen marching towards them. They stopped and Frea could see them conversing with animation. Then, the military platoon broke into a sprint in their direction.

One of the gentle garonds pushed Frea down into the hole, despite her protests.

"I can fight with you!" Frea cried as the large rock was pushed over the hole. Frea pushed at the rock, but it was too heavy for her to move by herself. She had no choice but to climb down into the blackness.

"The bad garonds have found us!" Frea cried into the darkness. "Wynnfrith come and help me move this stone! We must help the others fight."

"They will be safe," Dond's gentle voice rose up to Frea. "They will run, and the others will not chase them."

"But they'll move the stone and come down after us!" Frea exclaimed.

"No," Dond said. "They will not dare profane this sacred place."

Frea felt an assurance in Dond's voice and followed it down into the dark.

The passage was tight, and the rocks were jagged and sharp. It was difficult to crawl holding the uncovered, black sword, and Frea thought of leaving it behind. She saw a glow deep down in the passage and followed it. She knocked her head against a pointed rock and winced. The angle was steep in the passage, and with effort Frea turned her body around. She leaned back and climbed down, feet first, on her hands and feet, with her black sword balanced on her belly. 

As Frea reached the bottom of the passage, Dond was there to help her out of the tight squeeze of the narrow tunnel. The floor of the cave was flat and sandy. The cavern was expansive, and Dond's small candle barely lit the walls and roof of the dark recess.

Wynnfrith sat cross-legged in the center of the cave. She held the Ar in her lap. She seemed to be in a deep trance.

Dond pulled Frea closer to the wall of the cave, and lifted his small candle high to show her the paintings rendered on the smooth white surface. The cave was so much larger than Frea ever supposed. She could see stalactites twinkling in the candlelight far, far away.

On the cave wall, Frea saw red horses; black, hairy doderns; a lone regal bull stauer raised its mighty rack in the center of the paintings of animals, and to the side, there was a red ochre painting of a large hairy animal with a long nose and jutting tusks that Frea had never seen before. The paintings stretched along the walls away into the dark. Then, Frea noticed that there were even paintings of animals on the high roof of the cave.

Dond led Frea to a depiction of a herd of aurochs, their long horns glinting in the faint light. It seemed as if the numerous beasts actually were running in the flickering light of Dond's candle.

"Wynnfrith," Frea softly said, "have you seen this?"

"She's walks in the Sleep," Dond said with a kind smile.

Frea shook her head. "I don't..."

"She moves in the Ocean of Souls," Dond lightly shook his head as if Frea should have understood him. "See." Dond pointed at Wynnfrith. "No pain."

Frea noticed that the weight and struggle of holding the Ar was gone from Wynnfrith. Then, Frea saw that Wynnfrith held the Ar without its leather wrapping. Frea rushed to Wynnfrith's side. But, Dond caught her. He held up a hairy finger.

"Best to wait for her to wake on her own."